(no subject)
Jan. 24th, 2018 01:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckThe eye doctor says that progressives may not help because I change the distance at which I read and at which I work on my laptop pretty frequently. Progressives assume that I'll always have things in very specific configurations.
I got a cab in for the appointment and had 25 minutes to sit outside the locked clinic before they came back from lunch. Fortunately, there were comfortable benches inside with a view of the door.
My distance and reading prescriptions haven't changed enough that the doctor thinks replacing my glasses is worthwhile, not unless I'm going to progressives. The eye ache I've had is almost certainly just dryness (which may well be part of the anemia), so I'm to take lots of breaks and to use artificial tears frequently.
The doctor said that I'm doing a lot of my laptop stuff using just my right eye rather than using both. She didn't suggest a fix for that or even say that it was a problem, but it sounds like something I don't want to do, so I might try doing some laptop work with just my left eye.
I'm going to wait on the decision about progressives or laptop distance glasses or not getting another pair at all until after we figure out the anemia part. I think it's possible that the problems I'm having come more from that. I don't want to pile on extra solutions all at once. Limiting the variables is generally a good idea.
My blood pressure at the eye appointment yesterday was not as high as it had been before my appointment last week, but it was very high. I was also light headed and had hand tremors, so I think I was freaking out. The eye doctor suggested getting a machine for checking my blood pressure at home. Scott wants to go to Amazon. I would rather find someone who knows more and consult with them, probably the pharmacy at the university hospital.
I only just heard from my primary care doctor. Taking days is very unlike her so I was worried there was some emergency taking precedence (since I'm not dying). I will likely never know. As far as I can tell, she hasn't consulted with my other doctors.
Her recommendation is the well-duh step of pulling out my (not quite expired) multivitamins with iron in them and starting to take them again. I did that yesterday because I thought it couldn't hurt.
After poking around a bit online, I'm almost certain that the anemia is an intersection of two factors-- I had my Mirena IUD removed in June of 2016, and started up regular-ish periods again around June/July of 2017 with kind of heavy periods the last four months, and I stopped taking multivitamins containing iron during the decade when I didn't have periods.
A multivitamin with iron complicates my daily medication schedule because I can't take it in a certain proximity to the levothyroxine or to anything caffeinated (the latter is my own peculiarity. I get sick if I do it). I also take calcium, D3, folic acid, and Slo-Mag at recommendations from various doctors, and many of those contain calcium which shouldn't be taken with iron. I generally stick with Nature Made for my vitamins because I've had a couple of nutritionists tell me that they're one of the companies that gives reliable evidence that the pills actually contain useful nutrients and don't contain toxic crap.
It's possible that one of my medications is involved, but I'm dubious about the evidence I'm finding for that online. I suspect that I'm going to have to deal with doctors worrying about it, so I'm going to dig further into the studies and their methodologies so that I know what information there might actually be solid.
So far, I've found one study that says yes, one that says no, and one case study that never finished because the single patient died of something else before they figured out what was going on and didn't end up getting autopsied. This for a medication that's been on the market for more than two decades and that is available OTC at lower doses than what I take.
Oh, and a lot of sites trying to sell me health related magic.
There's some indication that iron deficient anemia can completely screw up A1c numbers. I'm seeing conflicting information about whether it makes the tests go higher or lower than they should, but everything says that A1c is unreliable in presence of iron deficiency because it changes the life cycle of blood cells and can change the concentration of certain substances in the blood. The only agreement I'm seeing is that one should not use A1c as a measurement of blood sugar issues for people with iron deficiency.
I asked my doctor about the omeprozale, the A1c, and the blood pressure weirdness when I responded to her patient portal message. I also gave her the go ahead for an electronic consult with endocrinology about the cortisol and what we might need to do with that.
I'm currently planning to print copies of the recent test results to show to my psychiatrist when I see her tomorrow. She's not in the UMHS system and so can't see those unless I make an explicit request or, well, print them out and show her. I suppose I could get to the patient portal from her office, but... Printing is easier.
I got a cab in for the appointment and had 25 minutes to sit outside the locked clinic before they came back from lunch. Fortunately, there were comfortable benches inside with a view of the door.
My distance and reading prescriptions haven't changed enough that the doctor thinks replacing my glasses is worthwhile, not unless I'm going to progressives. The eye ache I've had is almost certainly just dryness (which may well be part of the anemia), so I'm to take lots of breaks and to use artificial tears frequently.
The doctor said that I'm doing a lot of my laptop stuff using just my right eye rather than using both. She didn't suggest a fix for that or even say that it was a problem, but it sounds like something I don't want to do, so I might try doing some laptop work with just my left eye.
I'm going to wait on the decision about progressives or laptop distance glasses or not getting another pair at all until after we figure out the anemia part. I think it's possible that the problems I'm having come more from that. I don't want to pile on extra solutions all at once. Limiting the variables is generally a good idea.
My blood pressure at the eye appointment yesterday was not as high as it had been before my appointment last week, but it was very high. I was also light headed and had hand tremors, so I think I was freaking out. The eye doctor suggested getting a machine for checking my blood pressure at home. Scott wants to go to Amazon. I would rather find someone who knows more and consult with them, probably the pharmacy at the university hospital.
I only just heard from my primary care doctor. Taking days is very unlike her so I was worried there was some emergency taking precedence (since I'm not dying). I will likely never know. As far as I can tell, she hasn't consulted with my other doctors.
Her recommendation is the well-duh step of pulling out my (not quite expired) multivitamins with iron in them and starting to take them again. I did that yesterday because I thought it couldn't hurt.
After poking around a bit online, I'm almost certain that the anemia is an intersection of two factors-- I had my Mirena IUD removed in June of 2016, and started up regular-ish periods again around June/July of 2017 with kind of heavy periods the last four months, and I stopped taking multivitamins containing iron during the decade when I didn't have periods.
A multivitamin with iron complicates my daily medication schedule because I can't take it in a certain proximity to the levothyroxine or to anything caffeinated (the latter is my own peculiarity. I get sick if I do it). I also take calcium, D3, folic acid, and Slo-Mag at recommendations from various doctors, and many of those contain calcium which shouldn't be taken with iron. I generally stick with Nature Made for my vitamins because I've had a couple of nutritionists tell me that they're one of the companies that gives reliable evidence that the pills actually contain useful nutrients and don't contain toxic crap.
It's possible that one of my medications is involved, but I'm dubious about the evidence I'm finding for that online. I suspect that I'm going to have to deal with doctors worrying about it, so I'm going to dig further into the studies and their methodologies so that I know what information there might actually be solid.
So far, I've found one study that says yes, one that says no, and one case study that never finished because the single patient died of something else before they figured out what was going on and didn't end up getting autopsied. This for a medication that's been on the market for more than two decades and that is available OTC at lower doses than what I take.
Oh, and a lot of sites trying to sell me health related magic.
There's some indication that iron deficient anemia can completely screw up A1c numbers. I'm seeing conflicting information about whether it makes the tests go higher or lower than they should, but everything says that A1c is unreliable in presence of iron deficiency because it changes the life cycle of blood cells and can change the concentration of certain substances in the blood. The only agreement I'm seeing is that one should not use A1c as a measurement of blood sugar issues for people with iron deficiency.
I asked my doctor about the omeprozale, the A1c, and the blood pressure weirdness when I responded to her patient portal message. I also gave her the go ahead for an electronic consult with endocrinology about the cortisol and what we might need to do with that.
I'm currently planning to print copies of the recent test results to show to my psychiatrist when I see her tomorrow. She's not in the UMHS system and so can't see those unless I make an explicit request or, well, print them out and show her. I suppose I could get to the patient portal from her office, but... Printing is easier.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-24 07:04 pm (UTC)I hope you get this figured out.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-29 06:21 pm (UTC)Thanks.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-25 03:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-29 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-25 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-29 06:30 pm (UTC)We haven't had a usable desktop machine since before our daughter was born. The room where it used to live had to be gated off when she was mobile but still had no judgment, and we ended up dumping a lot of junk in there.
I really like being able to move between bed and living room and dining room. I just don't see progressives working for that unless I'm willing to keep shifting how I hold my head. At this point, distance is dictated 90% by what's comfortable for the rest of my body right at that moment.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-26 01:29 pm (UTC)If you need rides to anything, please do let me know.
About blood pressure: The women in my family all have scary-low blood pressure until menopause, and then hard-to-control high blood pressure after that. I'm 51 and my blood pressure has always been scary-low until recently, when there's been a dramatic increase. I don't know if it happens this way for everybody or if it's just women in my family. But what I'm saying is that the increase in your blood pressure might be a normal thing that happens at our age.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-29 06:26 pm (UTC)My mother still has scary low blood pressure, and so does my sister (she's in menopause due to surgery). Both of them have had nurses panic when they're coming out from anesthesia even though their blood pressure was normal-for-them.
Right now, I'm assuming that it's a panic/anxiety thing. Once the plumber has been and gone, I'll try again to find the measuring tape so that I know what I need to order for the blood pressure checking. I felt physically different at UHS during those appointments than I do at home. I don't normally have hand tremors that other people notice, for example.